My name is Byron Martin. I am the co-owner of Logee's Greenhouses.
And today, we're talking about orchids.
And the discussion today is not going to surround
varieties of orchids, or different species of orchids, but more
of the culture and care of them; and trying to address some of
the problems that we have in orchid culture.
The family of orchidaceae is one of the
largest families of plants in the world, and it spans from
the tropics, all the way up into the coldest areas of the world. Probably not into the tundra,
but you may even find some orchids that grow there.
We have native orchids here, in Connecticut. The ones that you probably... is that better?
The ones that you would probably would recognize would be 'Lady Slippers'
which used to be in the 'Paphiopedilum' group of orchids,
of which, there are also tropical varieties. Then we have some small,
colorful ones. So, the thing about Orchids is-- it's diverse.
And, there are orchids that are very easy to grow,
and there are orchids that are almost impossible to grow. Today, we're actually going to
be dealing mostly with tropical orchids. That's probably where the greatest
amount of variety exists, in our tropical rainforests. And,
it happens from the humid, you know,
wet, wet cloud forests; all the way to areas that, you
know, have six months without a drop of water.
And, one of the things in learning how to grow orchids,
or, with any plant, is trying to understand the
climatic conditions, and the environmental conditions that
particular plant, thrives or survives in, and then you try to
in some way replicate it, or at least you try to create some kind
a growing system that
has some relationship to that. For instance,
if you were in an area where there was six months of
no water, and there was also a
cool period, you might want to
think about: How does that relate to the growth of an orchid?
And, one of our greatest commercial orchids of
all times is the Phalaenopsis- the Moth Orchid.
Of which, we have some right here. Everybody recognize these?
This has become a commodity, meaning that these
are grown by, literally, by the millions.
And this particular plant has
its origins from the
Asian and Pacific region rainforests.
But, in that area, like, as in the Philippines, where
much of this type of large flowers,
big sprays, come from. I think the species is 'amabilis' that actually
gives us the white flower on the Phalaenopsis- they have six months without
any water at all- any rain. They have a dry season, they have a wet season.
And so, what happens is, the
clouds come in; and it starts to rain. And it rains; and it rains; and it rains.
And, everything is wet. And, these plants are growing as
epiphytes. Does everyone know what an 'epiphyte' is?
Ok, an 'epiphyte' is a plant that grows
out the ground, and on a structure- generally, a tree.
The other word that were going to use today is 'terrestrial.'
Those are plants that actually, are surviving in
the ground, and anchor themselves in the ground. So, most all of our plants out here are 'terrestrial.'
And, we don't even think of it that way. But, in the Orchids, there are either orchids growing up in the trees,
or, they're growing in the ground. Or, there's actually a
plant that's called 'semi-epiphytic,' meaning that some of
its life can actually be spent growing in the ground,
and a great example of that would be the Vanilla.
So, the Vanilla is a vine, and if you ever just Google it, and take a peek at
some of the pictures of some of these Vanilla growers, or-
some of the Vanilla vines, that maybe are in conservatories...
They- I mean, they're aggressive. Once they get going, they just vine all over everything.
But, those roots always- which are epiphytic- stick to a tree, stick to a wall,
and they drop themselves down until they hit the ground,
and then they go off into the ground, accessing moisture and food.
So it does both. So, getting back to the Phalaenopsis-
so, it has this cycle of dry and wet.
And, it also has a cycle where
the clouds come in, and the rain comes in, and summer comes in, and the temperatures rise.
And then, it also has a period when all the clouds disappear
and temperatures cool down. And there's actually a mechanism in that
that stimulates the flowering.
So, the question is: Why won't my orchid flower?
We have tons of green and, you know, interesting thing about orchids is, they have the most beautiful
flowers in the world, but you go into an orchid collection, and all you see is a bunch of green leaves.
Yeah, because, for one thing, most orchids,
especially species orchids, have a short window of bloom. The Cattleya
or, as we call them for short, 'Cats'-
and these are some of the Cat hybrids- they actually only
the flowers only last for two
weeks at the most, and some orchids can only last three days.
So, you're spending a lot of time, like growing this orchid, and all of a sudden, this bloom goes - well, it's still pretty well worth it,
because there's tremendous beauty, and sometimes fragrance in it, but you
have to understand, it's not all the time,
with the exception of the Phalaenopsis, which
can bloom, pretty much year-round. That's one of the reasons why they
made it into, what we would call, the commodities, or the big time.
Another one is, they grow very fast. So... the way orchids are grown
commercially, is- it's done from either tissue culture, or it's done from seed.
And seed-growing is,
and tissue culture, are actually very similar. And I got into orchids, like- really.
Does anybody remember my orchid thing I got into? Yeah...
I mean, you'd go down to the greenhouses, and I had bottles everywhere.
So, all over the place, of all these little seedlings that I was growing, and
they grow them 'in vitro,' meaning they grow inside of the container-
we use bottles- with agar as a substrate
to grow them in, under sterile conditions, so we had to have a lab to do all the stuff in.
And, I mean, I really got carried away. So, the thing is, is that the Phalaenopsis can
actually go from seed to flower in one year. Where,
the Cattleya, it'll take 3-5 years.
Or, and I don't have any here, but Vandas.
Those are the ones where the leaves come out and they go higher and higher,
and they just keep coming out, opposite; beautiful flowers; fairly
long lasting. In this climate, they can actually take 10-12 years. I had some
Vanda seedlings that I started, and I never saw them bloom.
I left the orchid room before they flowered. However, the interesting thing is, is that,
in Thailand, where they have very long days, constant,
they're near the equator; they can actually bring Vandas into flower
in less than a year, from taking them out of the bottle, and growing them on the-
I mean, the Thai growers, some of them do a very good job at it, but, it's the difference
in climate and light-level that we get here, in Connecticut. So,
the real understanding of orchids is trying to get an idea of
what the species is, that, you know, what its climatic conditions are, to grow it.